Good afternoon. My name is Dennis Kirk. I’m with the Heritage Foundation, and I am teaching you today about federal background investigations and the security clearance process. In the eyes of many in the world, this every 4 year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving.
Only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive, and will prosper. Whether we go forward together with courage or turn back to policies that weakened our economy, diminished our leadership in the world, America’s future will be in your hands. If you are hired for a federal job, you have to go through the background investigation process. This starts when an agency decides to hire you and makes you a job offer.
When you accept that job offer, they commence the investigation background checks. That starts when the United States government looks at employees whether or not they meet the suitability and fitness requirements for that position. This applies to anybody, whether you’re a contractor, an employee, military, and it covers things like federal facility access, automated systems, classified information, and includes a PIV card. The PIV card basically is that credit card looking thing that allows you to access a computer or doors or entryways or access to security facilities. This investigation process is meant to assure the government that you are reliable, trustworthy, and suitable for that job you have applied for.
Federal employment background checks are really different from regular employment checks in the civilian sector. Depending on what you apply for, they can check for anything from your basic identity check, financial situations, criminal records. Even if it seems trivial, the government is required to fully investigate. To believe that you could affect your job performance matters to them. What you do matters.
Regardless of the type of background check, you will at least need to answer questions about where you lived, where you worked, attended school, military history, police records, and your friends. You will also need to have your fingerprints taken if you’ve never worked for the federal government before or you are trying to get a higher security classification. The scope and type of background investigation varies a lot depending on the duties and responsibilities and access requirements, including classified for that position as does the amount of time that those various investigations will take to complete. The sponsoring, that’s your employing or hiring agency, initiates your investigation and is responsible for determining in the end the appropriate level of investigation to be conducted based on your position’s duties and responsibilities. After your sponsoring agency determines what type of background investigation you need, they may conduct the preliminary investigations themselves if they’re an authorized investigations service provider, such as the CIA, the NSA, and other certain intelligence agencies.
Or they may request another investigation service provider like the Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency at the Department of Defense to conduct that investigation. There are certain steps required to complete investigation. Step 1 is the questionnaire, filling out the forms. There are several forms. Suitability, the standard form s s 85, the standard form s f 86.
In order to conduct the background investigation of you, your sponsoring agency will ask you to complete an electronic questionnaire to include standard government forms as well as various releases and supporting documentation. Medical releases included, etcetera. But the agency gives you a code, you go on to the Internet, You sign in, and then you can fill out the forms. During today’s training session, we will focus on the s f 86 documentation, which is a form that many political appointees encounter upon accepting a job in the federal government. A guide to completing the s f 86 will be attached and is a reference material to this presentation.
The current EQIP form, which OPM designed, will soon be the new e app form of the Department of Defense Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency. The equip form will still be used by OPM for things like the suitability test to make sure you have the qualifications to do the basic job. If you’re not a nuclear scientist, don’t apply for that job. Supporting documentation will also be requested from you depending on your situation to include but not limited to citizenship documents, residence history, employment history, and your selective service number. If you’re a male, you must have applied to for the selective service if you’re in that age range where that applied.
To not have that means you would not be qualified. In today’s training station, we’re going to review the background investigation process and equip you with the tools you need to properly navigate that system efficiently and effectively. To start, providing the information requested is mandatory. It’s voluntary for you, but mandatory to get the job if you don’t supply it. You won’t get the job.
It will adversely affect your eligibility and will restrict you from any access to a position or classified documents, certainly. If you misrepresent or falsify information, that will very negatively affect your chances of employment and the job status if you have a current job and you’ve applied for a higher classification. And the potential consequences include, but are not limited to removal, debarment from federal service, loss of eligibility for access to classified information, and frankly, they could prosecute you for it. It’s a false statement. Once you finish filling out your form and provide all necessary documentation to your sponsoring agency, your sponsoring agency will then review it for accuracy and complete documentation.
They will help you if you request fill out anything that you have questions about. Your agency may send the electronic questionnaire back to you to correct any missing or inaccurate information. There are systems in place now with EAP where they can tell if you’ve filed a wrong zip code for the city you say you’re in, and they will automatically fix that. But for other incorrect information that is obviously incorrect, they will ask you to correct that. Your sponsoring agency has a right to determine your suitability and make an unfavorable determination at any point during this investigative process whether or not EQIP or EAP applies.
If they determine for some reason that you’re not suitable and that you’re not, for the good of the service, a a person that should occupy that position, they do not have to hire you. A favorable final determination can only be provided after investigation is complete. However, interim eligibility or access may be granted to you at the discretion of your sponsoring agency if specific portions of your investigation return favorable results. In other words, you might start the job and later get a negative result, which will remove you from that position. As a political appointee, you do not have appeal rights from that decision.
During your investigation, the Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency or DISA may conduct searches at law enforcement entities, courts, your prior employers, educational institutions, creditors, and other record repositories where they can find out anything about you. Your friends, coworkers, landlords, family, neighbors may be contacted to verify where you lived, worked, or went to school, and your behavior during those periods of time. Additionally, an investigator may interview you to verify, expand upon, and or clarify the information you provided on your investigative questionnaire. Be truthful at all times. It matters.
Several different investigators may work on your investigation at the same time depending on the locations of your listed activities. Some of you will have had out overseas trips and internships. Those embassies at that country will be contacted, and their local investigative officers will determine the truth or not of your statement. They may be federal employees or contractors to an investigation services employer provider, all doing the same work and following the same laws, rules, and regulations in their conduct of their affairs. The investigators submit reports, and these written reports of searches and interviews come back through a report of investigation to the primary documents providing agency.
Once that investigation is complete, it is sent back to your sponsoring agency so that your sponsoring agency can make a suitability, fitness, and or security determination regarding your employment. For some types of investigations, a written request is a primary means of gathering information about a person’s character, conduct, or employment history. The agent will send a letter asking the school, can you verify that John actually graduated in the year, and did he have any problems at the school? In these cases, DISA sends that written inquiry to the employer, for instance, to verify the individual’s employment history and gather relevant information. For other types of investigations, however, DISA may send an actual investigator to gather this information personally, sometimes under oath from the provider.
In all cases, your timely cooperation is appreciated, and it helps our government efficiently fill out these critical positions with qualified applicants. We want you to serve. This is how you get there. Each agency has their own personnel security office. Once they have received your completed background investigation, they will review all contents of the investigation and make a suitability, fitness, and or security classification recommendation.
It is important to note that the personnel security office makes a recommendation, not a final determination. The final suitability determination belongs to the senior political appointees at that respective agency. And these have been known to be made by the secretaries of an agency when everybody else has contrary, opinions underneath it. If your position requires access to classified information or facilities, your sponsoring agency will also determine as to whether or not you will be granted what level of security clearance. Your security clearance is based on the results of your background investigation.
The decision to grant you a clearance, although technically separate from the decision made on your eligibility based on your investigation, is often made at the same time and in conjunction with the decision based on your investigation. So those are 2 different actions, 1 by the agency, 1 by the referring investigator. If a clearance is required for the position, this decision may or may not impact on your ability to be employed by that sponsoring agency or contractor. As a clearance holder, you are required and expected to report any issues or life circumstances that may affect your eligibility to hold your position or access classified information. If something happens to you while you have a classification of a security clearance, secret, top secret, or SCI, you must report it.
If you do not report it, that is grounds for removal. Don’t hesitate to report it. It can be mitigated. This is a new process that started in 2018, 2019 while I was at the office of personnel management. The investigations policies and procedures have evolved since the 2016 time when some of you served previous administrations.
The entire investigations community is now in the midst of transitioning from a periodic reinvestigation procedure to a continuous evaluation or CE model, also known as continuous vetting, to ensure federal, military, and contractors continued eligibility for employment and or access to classified material. This model ins consists of you enrolling in a program that will track and alert your employing agency or organization to any changes in your eligibility based on suitability and those factors that determine whether you can still have access to important information or be barred from certain classifications or, frankly, had to be removed from your position for violations. You may be enrolled at any time while being employed with or on behalf of the federal government. It is not an option. It is an agency determination.
Security clearances. There are 4 levels of security clearances. A confidential, this type of security clearance provides access to information that could cause damage to national security if disclosed without authorization. It gets reinvestigated every 15 years even with the continuing vetting. You’ll be fully reinvestigated every 15 years.
Secret is when you have a classification that gets reinvestigated every 10 years. Top secret is every 5 years, and top secret sensitive compartmented information is an access program that gets added on to the top secret clearance and is continuously vetted. If the hiring office requests it, an applicant can be granted an interim security clearance due to backlogs or inefficiencies or you just haven’t gotten cleared. Final clearances usually are supposed to be processed and adjudicated in less than 90 days. Some agencies are backlogged, so your agency should prioritize any political appointees to get in there and start doing the job immediately the day they hit the ground.
With an interim clearance, classified work can be performed, but in a temporary capacity until a background investigation can be completed. It is possible that the job you apply for is a public trust position. Public trust is not a security clearance, but depending on the job, you must complete either the standard form 85 or 85 p questionnaire that determines that you are in all other capabilities and capacities qualified to be a federal employee. In order to obtain a security clearance or higher, investigation requires agents to interview people who have lived and worked with the applicant at some point in the last 7 to 10 years. Sometimes, either further back if you’ve lived overseas or had a long, string of moves across the country.
In that situation, investigators will use a stat use the standard form 86 f to conduct their investigation. Next, we’re going to discuss several factors that could disqualify you from obtaining any security clearance. If the job you are considered for does not require a security clearance, it is still important to pay attention to these disqualifiers because they disqualify you from any federal employment. Personnel security officers at e day each agency will consider all of these factors when considering you for a position regardless of the security clearance required for your position. Some disqualifiers are citizenship.
You absolutely must be a US citizen to work for the federal government. The applicant must show that he is either a US citizen by birth or a naturalized citizen. Illegal immigrants and green card holders cannot be considered for government jobs because of law. If noncitizens lie on their application about being citizens, they are automatically disqualified. Of course, they’re also properly prosecuted for violation of false statements to the government.
Criminal history. In most cases, individuals tried in federal criminal courts are disqualified from government jobs. If you’ve been convicted of a crime, you will not be serving in the federal government. Crimes such as fraud, embezzlement, and tax evasion show a lack of moral character just like similar white collar offenses that are highly frowned upon and will bar you from service. Bankruptcy or debt, your credit history is assessed by banking professionals who work for the federal government.
Although there is not a minimum credit score to obtain employment in government, it is not favorable if you have accumulated debt and file for bankruptcy that you’re not able to be responsible for. For the government, this means that you are unable to comply with financial obligations and are considered grounds for disqualification. However, owning a house with a large mortgage is not a disqualifier. Substance abuse. Admitting drug use on a security clearance automatically disqualifies a candidate from the job.
Unfortunately, even though some states allow it, this absolutely means marijuana admission within the last 6 months will bar you from the federal government. If a candidate is using illegal substances now or is addicted to prescription medication, the government finds them automatically unreliable and denies them with clearance. If a candidate is a former addict, however, and can show proof of recovery, they could be allowed to apply for a government job. Inconsistencies. Irregularities on your application or during your interview, the government can discover all of these inconsistencies against which they already know many things.
Assume that everything in your past, from your parents’ birth to everything the minute you file that application, is somewhere in the government record or it’s discoverable. Reasons for concealing any aspect of your life raise even more questions and will not be acceptable. Conflicts of interest. Other occupations or familiar relations might be considered a conflict of interest on a federal level. The best course of action is to disclose any such information during the interview process.
If your wife works for a major contractor for that same government agency, that familial relationship may bar you from service. S f 85 disqualifications. The questionnaire for public trust positions is the most commonly used questionnaire when conducting background checks for all government positions. If you provide false information on this questionnaire, you intentionally lie or withhold relevant information. You will be disqualified.
Bad credit. When you’re applying for that public trust clearance, bad credit might be a determining factor if you’ve not been covered, but that depends on the position. If it’s a low risk position, and I’m talking you’re not gonna be as a political janitor, but that would be a low risk position, a moderate risk or high risk. So a high risk position, it might be a very bad bar. Now how do you improve your chances of getting a government position?
Becoming permanently employed in the government is not an easy or automatic fact. But even if you think you might not be the best candidate for any position with the government, there are certain strategies that can help you improve your employment opportunities. First, the obvious one is become a US citizen. You can do that several ways, but do it correctly. You can join the military and become a US citizen that route.
You can become a naturalized citizen and do it in that route. The first matter verified in a federal criminal background check is citizenship. If you lie about your status as a citizen, you’re automatically disqualified. It is mandatory then to first work at becoming a citizen before applying for a job. Be qualified.
Do not waste your time and energy on a position that requires different qualifications than what you have. If you can show that you’re a nuclear scientist, apply for that position, but don’t if you can’t. During the federal suitability determination process, they will realize that you lacked suitability for the position. Your talents will be better utilized elsewhere. Choose a job and apply for it that best is suited to your skill set.
Complete application. A complete application is one of the federal background check requirements. Government recruiters do not review incomplete applications. Be sure to fill out each required field and answer every question required of you. Incomplete applications will be sent back to you or not processed.
Pay off your debts. Improve your credit rating. If you have any debt, pay them off before applying for the job you want. Being debt free will show the government that you are responsible and reliable. A very high credit card maxed out debt picture does not show financial fiscal responsibility.
You want to be a responsible employee of the government. Rehabilitated behavior. Past criminal offenses on your permanent record or any drug drug offense can be overlooked if you show that you have overcome your problems and that you are fully rehabilitated. Drug abuse, however, is one of the CIA’s always permanent absolute employment disqualifiers. Appealing a denial or revocation of a clearance.
What’s going to happen is you will be denied a clearance and you’ll think you should appeal it. There are processes. When you’re denied a clearance or you have been revoked for a continuing evaluation factor by a central adjudication agency, you have an opportunity to appeal that decision. You first appeal through your agency security personnel office. The process for doing so differs between military and civilian personnel.
In executive order 12968, access to classified information, you will find the process for military and civilian personnel. In each case, speaking with your agency security office is the best way to find out what specific processes apply to you and how best to resolve the issues. You can request a hearing before administrative law judges, but in the political appointees venue, that is an appeal to your superiors at your agency, and then it’s pretty much over. Appealing nonclearance adjudications or decisions. In addition to the national security determinations, applicants and personnel may be subject to credentialing and or suitability or fitness determinations.
If you were a college kid and had a lot of drinking in your record, the fact that you’ve recuperated and you don’t have any now certainly stands good for you, but you may need to explain that to your security personnel office. The policy and regulations under which these determinations are made will vary by position type as do the procedures that are be followed in an unfavorable decision by your agency. If an appeal process is available, notification of that process and the requirements for appealing it will be provided to you in writing by the adjudicated agency and served on you personally. Questions about which process applies and how the process works should be directed to your agency. Your White House liaison office for political officers is the people you wanna talk to first.
For example, for positions in the competitive service, positions in the accepted service that are noncompetitively converted, or career appointments, the SES, that’s the senior executive service, when a suitability action is taken against you, you can appeal that to the merit systems protection board. That does not apply to political appointees. There is no merit systems protection board for political appointee. Applicants for federal positions are required to complete a questionnaire for that background check on suitability, and that’s often the OPM equip form. And that will tell you what your processes are, and you can answer that at that time.
Summary. Federal employment checks are done on every government employee, including political appointees. That extent of that check will depend on your position you’re applying for, the agency, and the security risk level you are going to be exposed to, and the agency determines what you can apply for. Certain conditions that we’ve covered automatically disqualify you from working in any federal position. A background check is mandatory for all federal employees.
You’ll first go through suitability checks, fitness checks, etcetera, but then you will have a security clearance level, confidential, secret, top secret, top secret, at secured compartment information. On the bright side, you now know and can learn from this process how to avoid the common background problems and disqualifiers. Security depends on your honesty, integrity, detailed forthright, and complete answers with truth being the paramount decision factor. Fill out the forms completely and honestly, and we will welcome you into the federal government. Thank you.